LEX TALIONIS. 53 



that time newly gravelled in the old way. He won, 

 it is true ; but what a win ! His shoulders, where he 

 had been chiefly spurred, were in a perfect jelly of 

 blood ; his sinews had given way ; the back of his 

 pastern nearly touched the ground on being pulled 

 up ; and it was only by the support of several men 

 that he was kept from falling, and thus got into a 

 stable. To the disgrace of my country, be it said, 

 his rider, who was also his owner, was allowed to re- 

 main with a whole skin. There is certainly a Society 

 for Preventing Cruelty to Animals; but their laud- 

 able exertions are rendered all but useless by the 

 restrictions our feeling Legislature puts on their 

 power. The owner of this horse might have been 

 fined 405. ! What would he care when he made as 

 many hundred by the Match in bets and the match- 

 money ? If he could have been fined double his win- 

 nings, he would be careful in future how he publicly 

 exercised his brutality. I should like to have had 

 him naked as his horse, tied to the pole of a carriage, 

 made a kind of near- side wheeler of for ten miles. I 

 would have taught him the full effects of a drawing- 

 stroke with a double thong, and before I had done 

 with him he should have been a perfect judge of what 

 distress and punishment are to bear. 



I had locked up the preceding pages in my desk, 

 intending to add a few lines to them at my leisure, 

 nor for months had I given them a thought till the 

 recent Bedford Match of execrable notoriety recalled 

 them to my recollection ; and, singular enough ! I 

 had left off writing after mentioning a Match against 

 time won by the very hero of the Bedford tragedy. 

 I had given my opinion of the Match I had alluded 

 to, and in no very measured terms stated my tender 



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